Characteristics of short-period blazed fiber Bragg gratings for use as macro-bending sensors

The characteristics of short-period blazed fiber Bragg gratings for use as macro-bending sensors are discussed. This sensor is able to detect macro bending with the transmitted power variation of the first side mode in the blazed fiber Bragg grating. Since an incident ray experiences different variations of tilt angles with respect to bending direction, the blazed. fiber Bragg grating has different coupling efficiencies of the first side mode, which can be reduced considerably in the case of twisted blazed fiber Bragg gratings. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.